First Utterance or The Yes Album

Two albums released in 1971 and produced in the autumn of 1970, which album do you prefer?

Thing about TYA is that it's one of the great rock albums ever, not just prog.   Whereas the Comus album left me questioning my very interest in prog.   I must be missing something; have to return to it again someday a long, long time from now.

I might argue that Comus is one of the great folk albums, not just Prog (I rather dislike the P word as it can cover so much diverse music), but let's face it, that would sound a very silly claim to make with so many great albums by folk artists.

It is a favourite Yes album of mine, and I do consider it to one of the classic rock greats (I prefer it to Close to the Edge), but I love acid folk, and to me First Utterance may be the greatest progressive folk/ acid folk album. In fact it's one of my favourite folk albums period. I wasn't immediately "bitten", erm smitten by FU when I heard I started playing until I heard "The Herald", which was one of the most eerily beautiful songs I'd heard.

By the way, although there are similarities between these albums (more so if I'd chosen an earlier Yes album), I thought the sinister and creepy aspects of the Comus album would make for an interesting contrast with the much more positive Yes (though The Bite is very up-beat in its tempo).

Logan wrote: I might argue that Comus is one of the great folk albums, not just Prog (I rather dislike the P word as it can cover so much diverse music), but let's face it, that would sound a very silly claim to make with so many great albums by folk artists. It is a favourite Yes album of mine, and I do consider it to one of the classic rock greats (I prefer it to Close to the Edge), but I love acid folk, and to me First Utterance may be the greatest progressive folk/ acid folk album. In fact it's one of my favourite folk albums period. I wasn't immediately "bitten", erm smitten by FU when I heard I started playing until I heard "The Herald", which was one of the most eerily beautiful songs I'd heard.

Impact versus taste is an interesting issue, one that plagues most serious music collectors, I'm sure. 

- "I hate that album."
- "But it's definitive; crucial.  A classic."
- "Absolutely, and I haven't listened to it in eleven years."

Comus.

Atavachron wrote: Logan wrote: I might argue that Comus is one of the great folk albums, not just Prog (I rather dislike the P word as it can cover so much diverse music), but let's face it, that would sound a very silly claim to make with so many great albums by folk artists. It is a favourite Yes album of mine, and I do consider it to one of the classic rock greats (I prefer it to Close to the Edge), but I love acid folk, and to me First Utterance may be the greatest progressive folk/ acid folk album. In fact it's one of my favourite folk albums period. I wasn't immediately "bitten", erm smitten by FU [until] "The Herald" [stated], which was one of the most eerily beautiful songs I'd heard. Impact versus taste is an interesting issue, one that plagues most serious music collectors, I'm sure.  - "I hate that album." - "But it's definitive; crucial.  A classic." - "Absolutely, and I haven't listened to it in eleven years."

Haha, yes.

Side-note: Maybe it's senility, but I could not fairly judge an album by today's ears that I hadn't heard in many years. My tastes have changed so much since 2005 (well, not much since 2008). When I started visiting PA (before I joined), I wasn't much more than a Symphonic Prog type fan, and now I rarely listen to any bands in that category. Tastes change, maybe more for me than most.

Reliving the past too much: 30 years ago I thought Yes' Fragile and Rush' Hemispheres was the best music ever, but had I heard, say, Henry Cow's Western Culture, Miles Davis' Get Up With It, Herbie Hancock's Crossings and a host of others, I don't think I would have appreciated it. I was raised on classical, then my brother introduced me to classic 60s and 70s stuff such as Supertramp, Alan Parson Project, Roxy Music and Gary Numan, then friends introduced me to prog, then I was most into jazz, then electronic, then a Prog revival of interest, and now a very wide variety of music.

After a long absence from Yes, I am glad that I can appreciate albums by them again -- even listened to Fragile again yesterday for the first time in many years.

Genera note for thread: First Utterance ranks amongst the very best in progressive folk for me which includes Perry Leopold's Christian Lucifer, Spirogyra, and Jan Dukes de Grey. I think that most lists would include First Utterance as one of the most iconic acid folk albums, but most people who generally love folk would not include it as one of the best folk albums. A lot of people into folk actually dislike folk rock, though I have found the dislike for jazz rock more pronounced in jazz communities.

Edited by Logan - June 28 2016 at 17:46

Wanorak wrote: No contest Yes. Comus is awful IMO.

But you still gave it three stars, I respect that. And please don't say, now I'm going to downgrade it.

Reminds me of a Yes album I never got into: Close to The Edge. Personally it's a 2 star album for me, but I'd still rate it with 4 as I recognize it to be a very important album of its ilk.

EDIT: By the way, am I the only who gets goosebumps from about 3:52 in The Herald? I find it sublime (often cited it as one of my favourite guitar bits in prog).

Edited by Logan - June 28 2016 at 18:34

Well then FU .

Yes, easily, probably my favorite from them.

FU is a fine listen, once in a decade.

Edited by Barbu - June 28 2016 at 22:01

First Utterance beats Yes hands down. It is probably one of the moodiest albums on this site.